The engineers were let go last Thursday, according to our source.
This follows Barnes & Noble dismissing the VP of Hardware,
Bill Saperstein in January.

Barnes & Noble confirmed that it laid people off when we
asked. A spokesperson told us:

"We’ve been very clear about our focus on rationalizing the
NOOK business and positioning it for future success and value
creation. As we’ve aligned NOOK’s cost structure with business
realities, staffing levels in certain areas of our organization
have changed, leading to some job eliminations. We’re not going
to comment specifically on those eliminations."

The Nook was its answer to the
Amazon's Kindle. Barnes & Noble tried making a Nook e-reader,
and a Nook tablet that competed with the iPad, and the Kindle
Fire. It was a bold, and aggressive attempt to fend off the rise
of Internet companies that were destroying booksellers.

It did not work, though. In the September quarter of last
year, Nook revenue was down 32.2% on a year-over-year basis, and
it had an EBITDA loss of $45.2 million. Those numbers made
Nook the worst- performing part of Barnes & Noble.

It decided to move away from making its own devices, and focus on
just doing its own applications, and digital distribution.
Barnes & Noble stopped
making a tablet, but continued making a Nook e-reader, the
GlowLight. We're not sure what the future holds for the
GlowLight.

While it's shedding staff, a spokesperson said Barnes & Noble
remains committed to the Nook group:

"We believe we have a strong management team in place at
NOOK, having recruited significant new talent. The new NOOK
management team is focused on managing the business efficiently
so that it becomes financially strong while at the same time
aggressively moving to drive revenue growth."

Update: After posting this, Barnes &
Noble told us that it did not eliminate its entire hardware
department, but it declined to provide specifics.